Philippine government approves US$127 million transmission projects

Will improve reliability of the national power grid.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said the funding will go to three transmission projects of National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). The projects are the Antipolo EHV substation; the Calaca-Dasmariñas 230 kilovolt transmission line and the Opol substation.

ERC approved the construction of a new substation in Antipolo City costing US$71 million and directed National Grid to conduct competitive bidding for the purchase of major materials in the implementation of the proposed project.

NGCP expects the new Antipolo substation to prevent potential system congestion and relieve the San Jose substation in Bulacan, that carries the bulk of Metro Manila’s load.

The San Jose substation is the merging point of power coming from the 600 MW Masinloc and 1,218 MW Sual coal plants in North Luzon and the 460 MW Quezon and 735 MW Pagbilao coal stations in South Luzon.

The ERC also approved the US$68 million Calaca-Dasmariñas 230 kilovolt transmission line project. The project will accommodate additional power capacities expected from three power plants from 2014 to 2017: Puting Bato, Batangas and San Gabriel.